January 31, 2015

This is critical if you live in a populated area. The longer you wait, the hungrier people become and the more dangerous it will be. Some people have suggested that when the collapse happens, the first few days will be the most dangerous and chaotic, and after those first few days or weeks, things will calm down. Almost the opposite is true. Yes, there will be chaos in the stores in the first few days, but things won't get REALLY dangerous until after that when people are killing each other for food and organizing their crime. So, pack up, preserve whatever food you can, and leave as soon as you can. I think within 48-72 hours is acceptable.

2. GET SOMETHING FOR EASE OF TRANSPORTATION

If you're on foot, you won't want to carry everything on your back. That is tremendously exhausting and it is wasting unnecessary calories. Consider getting horses and a wagon, bicycles and trailers, garden carts, pull carts, dollies, wheelbarrows, trash cans with wheels, or even shopping carts or two bicycles bound together. I would suggest looking at pictures or videos of refugees from years past as they flee wars. They have all their stuff loaded up on carts or donkeys. That is what it is going to be like. They made the most out of what they had, and what they had was usually carts or donkeys. Today, we have better technology and smoother rolling carts and wagons. A simple garden cart costs about $100 and will allow you to move 350 lbs effortlessly. I recommend getting some of these now or making them a priority item to get when everyone starts rushing the stores. Now, eventually, once you get near your bug out location, you might have to go off road, which I recommend for a bug out location, in which case, you'll be carrying your supplies in a backpack, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use transportation devices to get there. You can just ditch them once you get to the point where you need to exit the road and haul them to your bug out location later when they are empty.

3. TRAVEL AT NIGHT, IF THERE IS DANGER

It might sound counter-intuitive, because right now, nights are more dangerous, but when the SHTF, being visible with goods is the most dangerous. If you travel at night, you have a better chance of not being spotted by thieves. Coupling this method with traveling along the most rural roads possible is a winning combination for remaining unseen. This should allow you to make it to your bug out location unseen. Remember, if the event is an EMP, there may be millions of people stranded out on the roads when their cars stop working.

4. AVOID TRAPS

Once the collapse is a week old or more, you need to be on the lookout for traps. Crime will only become more and more organized as the collapse grows older. At some point, gangs and thieves will begin to establish road block traps. These could look like the damsel in distress situation or a physical trap once you get onto a certain part of the road. If the US collapses, thousands upon thousands of refugees fleeing the city will be robbed and some killed in these kinds of traps.

5. HIDDEN CACHES EN ROUTE

If you should run into trouble and have your stuff stolen, it will be very helpful to get some basics back in your hands quickly. For this, I would recommend burying hidden caches along your bug out route that have food, water, and supplies.

6. HAVE GOOD SHOES

If you're going to be walking long distances, which you probably will, it makes sense to get good shoes AND get multiple pairs of those shoes--even enough to last for the rest of your life.

7. BLISTER AND RASH PROTECTION

Similar to the #6 tip, you will want to do everything possible to avoid blisters and rashes. If you have to walk multiple miles a day, these things WILL be an issue. Your best plan of action will be a combination of good clothes/shoes, avoidance of moisture buildup, and protection like moleskin and Body Glide.

8. TAKE IT EASY

Once, you've made it to rural areas, you can relax a little. Chances are that if you will run into trouble in a collapse, it will happen near populated areas. I would still take less travelled roads and travel at night if you think there is a possibility of trouble, but you no longer have to march like an army at war. As long as you have enough food stored up, you can just do something like 6 miles a day or whatever is comfortable for people. Society has collapsed, so guess what, you have nothing but time. There is always the possibility of a bad encounter happening, so you shouldn't slack off either, but it won't need to be a grueling day every day. However, if you haven't stored up enough food or it is summer time, you will still need to hurry in order to search for food or get that first crop planted.

January 24, 2015

If you find yourself in a situation where society has collapsed for good and there is no rule of law, you might have to exact your own law enforcement and punishments. Here are some ideas for that.

First of all, do everything you can to avoid bad people. Bug out to the wilderness far away from others. Still, you might have a run in with thieves or other criminals, even among your own group. Your choices for punishment aren't limited to 2 or 3 choices.

FORGIVENESS - Things are going to be tough and some people stealing food used to be honest citizens who never stole a thing in their lives, but if their family is dying of starvation, they will do what they can to keep their family alive. I suggest hearing their case. Maybe some of these people you can teach how to survive off the land, so they don't have to steal.

REPARATIONS - They can pay off their punishment by making reparations, like 1/3 of their crop.

BANISHMENT - You can tell them to leave and never come back. If they do come back, they will face punishment.

REMOVE THEM - You can tie them up, blindfold them, and physically remove them, by driving them or walking them to a far off place. The downside is you'll have to waste precious gas on them and risk any threats on the roads as you travel or waste precious calories.

MAIM THEM - If they are a violent threat, this might be a good idea. You can slit their achilles tendon(s) so they can't run, cut one or multiple muscles, damage their eyes, or even amputate something.

IMPRISONMENT - You can imprison them for a period of time, but you have to go through the hassle of building a jail, guarding them, risking a violent jailbreak, and feeding them while they are in jail. If you have work they can do while in the jail, you could at least get some use out of them. Overall, this seems like a hassle, but you might want to consider it.

STOCKS - You can put them in the stocks for a period of time. It's a harsher punishment than jail, but it will last shorter. Manual labor is an important asset to any sustenance, survival, and agrarian community, so getting eligible bodies back to work ASAP is important. Stocks enable that.

FORCED LABOR - You can put criminals to work for a period of time, like the chain gangs. They are punished, but their tough labor helps the community at the same time. Win win. You should consider getting some shackles as part of your survival gear. Or just use flex cuffs, but you'll have to watch them closer to make sure they don't cut them off.

EXECUTION - For the really bad guys who are a threat to society and will likely steal and kill again.

ASSASSINATION - If you come across a camp of bad guys who are stealing, killing, raping, etc., and you've witnessed this, you might want to take them out before they cause more harm to society. This includes gangs and warlords that have risen to power by stealing and killing. The world will be much better off without those people. If you eliminate them, a peaceful, civil society will revive itself much quicker. Then rescue anybody they have captive and teach the fringe people how to better survive and grow their own food.

January 17, 2015

If society has collapsed and you've bugged out to the wilderness, it is a good idea to try to build an alliance of people who can positively work with you for trade, security, and the betterment of society. There are two main reasons you may want to do this: 1) Powerful gangs will rise up. You can either hide from them, fight them, or pay the extortion. If you build an alliance, you can establish a militia powerful enough to take on the gangs. 2) When you grow an alliance, you will pave the way for a civil society to rise from the ashes once again. You'll establish security, law and order, education, social interactions, and a trade network that will lead to an advanced economy.

The best way to grow your alliance is to start with people close to your bug out location and work outward. In my last article, I discussed how to grow your survival community after the shtf. You will start with those steps to gather neighbors and refugees to join your alliance.

Then, you can continue to establish relationships with people outside of a 5 mile radius. Anytime you go on a hunt or a trip to gather more supplies, you should be on the lookout for other friendly people. It is always good to observe them from a distance at first. If they appear friendly, you can exchange letters with them and then meet them in person later.

As your acquaintances and friends grow, begin to trade with them. Perhaps the people in an area can have a market day, where everyone brings their goods to a central location. Trust will be established. The friendlier you are, the more people will like you and trust you. I'm not saying to be someone you're not, but remember that a lot of the survivors will have been through a lot, so meeting a friendly, loving person will cheer them up and give them hope.

Give gifts to survivors whenever you can. If you have extra items or a surplus of something, it might greatly help them improve their lives, so they will be thankful and they can be stronger, which in turn, will make your alliance strong. For example, rather than selling rabbits all the time, a person might consider giving rabbits as gifts to increase everyone's quality of life. (A method I discussed in "How to Get Rich After the SHTF")

Teach everyone in your alliance how to survive and thrive. If you are reading this, you are probably one of the more prepared people for survival. Spend time teaching others how to not just survive, but kick butt at it. The healthier and more well fed your alliance will be, the better it is for you.

Work together for a common goal of security. Establish a militia. Have a rule, where if you hear the distress call of 3 shots, the militia needs to come running to help. Build a stronghold of some sort in case people are attacked. You could build a refuge fort where people can go if there is an attack, or you can live together in a fortified position, like a gord, castra, hill fort, or stockade.

Establish a constitution, laws, a judicial system, etc. for anyone who wants to join the alliance. You might have two sets of rules to follow: one set for anyone who wants to live in your camp and another set for anyone who wants to join the larger alliance, but live separately. At some point in time, you'll need to have a full democracy, but at first, the decisions should be made by the wisest in the community.

Engage in branding yourself and your alliance. Hang a flag or give your alliance a name. It will give the impression of a legitimate group of survivors who know what they're doing (but only if you really do know what you're doing.) You can have an official seal that is placed in wax on your correspondences. You can put your seal on goods you sell. You can carve it into soap you make and send that soap far and wide throughout the trade networks. You can announce who you are via radio as long as it's done in a safe way, without enticing raiders.

Once your alliance is doing well, you can put your professionals to use. Engineers, mechanics, and electricians might not have many tasks related to their field in the first year or two, but once things are stable with enough food and security, they can begin to work on bigger projects like irrigation, electrification, and biofuel vehicles, which will boost your alliance to prominence.

If you do all these things, you'll be a group that is powerful enough to repel any attack from the gangs and furthermore, all who hear of your proto-neokingdom will want to join. At some point, if your alliance grows large enough and you have a growing town, you might want to consider moving everyone to a better location with more water and arable land or you could send a group from your alliance to establish a new settlement and have people migrate when they're ready. If you are sure that you have the strongest militia in the region, you can even repopulate a town that is visible with many roads leading to it.

But it all starts with the small step of bugging out to the wilderness with your initial tiny group :)

January 10, 2015

Having small numbers and only associating with your small group is boring. For survivors who are willing, PURPOSEFULLY GROWING your community is an excellent idea. You'll gain more friends and have a larger defense force. But it has to be done the safe way.

Of course, it's always best to organize your survival community before the SHTF. You will want many like minded people surviving with you. If you have one or two dozen people with you that also have stored food, guns, and a survival mentality, you will be in a good position.

Many preppers, however, don't already have a group they will be surviving with or the group is not very big and there is enough food and supplies for others to survive with them. If that's the case, they can attempt to grow their community by adopting others into their community. Actually, anytime there is enough food available to feed more people and it is likely that the surplus will remain, it is a good idea to adopt more people into your community. You'll save lives, grow your defenses, and gain friends. But, it's not so easy. It has to be done the right way.

How would I grow my community by adopting people?

First, I would store as much food and supplies as possible, with the intention of adding to my numbers.

Next, I would bug out to a good location that has year-round fresh water available, arable land, is hidden in the wilderness, is far enough from population centers that my area won't be overrun by refugees or frequented by thugs, but not so far from population centers and roads that I will never see another soul.

Once I have my bug out camp set up and garden has begun, I would search the surrounding areas for alternate bug out location campsites. I might already have some places picked out from looking at Google Earth beforehand. I would check them out in person and see if they would be suitable for survival.

Then I would scout my surrounding areas to see if anyone is living (or attempting) to live within a 5 mile radius. Perhaps there are people in houses, cabins, or tents that are attempting to survive. I would watch them from a distance and would be looking for three things: are they surviving well with enough food and supplies, do they have any skills/personnel that would aid my community, and are they nice survivors who survived the legitimate way rather than the illegitimate way of lying, stealing, and killing.

If I determined after watching my distant neighbors that they would be valuable to my community, I would discuss with my group or let the group know that I will be making contact with them
to get to know them personally. Even though I would have been watching them for a while, I still wouldn't want to take chances. They might be an overly secure bunch or suffering from PTSD, so I would make contact in the safest manner--leaving a letter for them. I would write something like, "Hello, I'm (name). I'm your neighbor from a couple miles away. I am peaceful. I do have weapons, but I won't harm you if you don't harm me. I am with a group of 8 people (you can make up a number that is at least double their number). Things are hard with us, but we are surviving. (Even if you have plenty to eat, just say that things are hard.) I would have met you in person, but things are dangerous these days and you don't know who you can trust. I've left you a gift. (I would leave a couple of basic survival items that they might not have. Most important of these might be printouts of wild edible plants that can be found nearby or I might even gather some of these edibles for them and leave them as samples.) I hope it helps. If you want to write back to me, you can. You can leave the note under the big fallen tree at the top of the hill and I will return in a couple days. Good luck neighbor!" Then I would put the note, with extra paper and a pen in a plastic bag and tie it to a tree with bright orange trail marking tape that is visible from their location. I would leave it in the middle of the night, so I wouldn't be seen. We could continue to write to each other a few times and if I felt comfortable enough, we could meet in person to talk.

Whenever I meet a person for the first time post-collapse, the best way to do it is to remain at a distance and stand close to a rock or tree that I could duck behind for cover if things went bad. I would have my gun with me, but wouldn't point it at them. If possible, I would have a couple guys hidden on my flanks just in case things go bad.

If enough trust developed and we liked each other enough, we might decide to live in the same camp together to increase our protection and grow community. Otherwise, we could just continue to live in our respected locations, but help each other out from time to time and trade with each other. Or they could simply move closer, say 50-100 yards away (within yelling distance), for added protection, but they would maintain their autonomy and remain a separate group.

If we do decide to adopt people into our community, they will have to agree to our rules. Every survival community will need to have a set of rules to follow. Establishing these rules and agreeing to them will dramatically reduce the potential for power struggles, factions, disagreements, coups, etc. Having this 'constitution' if you will, is a must. You might even want them to sign it before joining.

Once I've scouted the surrounding area for survivors and there is still enough food for more people, I will begin to look for refugees that are passing by on a nearby road. Since they are passing by, I will have less time to observe them and make a decision if I want to make contact with them or not. I will position myself where I can see far down the road in both ways. As long as I don't see bad behavior among the people coming or obvious red flags, they will be candidates for contact. Small families are good candidates. Teenagers are great candidates, because they'll be healthy and despite whatever attitude they exude now, they'll be very teachable after the shtf. Men in their 40s and 50s are great candidates as well, since they will likely have valuable experience and knowledge, but won't have many health problems yet. Men and women in their 20s and 30s are good too, since they're healthy, strong, and usually mature enough to handle serious situations.

So, when I see a group coming that I want to contact, I will place a letter and gift in the road in front of them (without being seen). I might do this by calling to my friend down the road on the walkie talkie and having him leave the letter and gift. The letter will say something like, "Hi. I have left this gift for any refugees who seem to be struggling and need a little relief. They will help you survive. (I would leave a basic survival package with survival items, a little food, and some samples of the wild edible plants nearby with descriptions of how to prepare them and what parts are edible) There is a stream up ahead to fill up on water. Make sure to boil it first to purify any of the impurities. Don't camp right next to the stream, since it is dangerous to camp next to bodies of water. Some thieves take advantage of people while they are sleeping and they know they can always find them near sources of water. My small group is camped a few miles from here. We are struggling, but we'll survive. Once our garden produces, we'll be doing well. I would have wanted to talk to you in person, but I can't trust strangers and neither can you. However, I'd love to know more about your group. I'm leaving a pen and some extra paper if you want to write back. Tell me where you're from, where you're going, your plans for survival, and any loved ones you're looking for. Perhaps I may come across them someday. If you camp nearby and write back, perhaps we can form an alliance. I know of a few good places around here to set up a camp and begin growing a garden (i.e. the alternate bug out location campsites I've already scouted out). I can spare some seeds for you. You can also collect more edible plants and do some fishing. I can help you get started. If you write back, leave the note under the big mossy rock that is on the side of the road. I will check the rock in the morning and write back if you stick around. Don't be near the rock in the morning. Me and my men will be armed when I come for your letter. If you attempt to rob us, you'll die. Plus, we won't have many possessions with us anyways. If you decide to move on, good luck, and if things get really bad, remember, almost all insects are edible and you can chew grass for the juice and spit out the fibers. Sincerely, (name)".

If possible, either I or my friend will be close enough to witness and hear the refugees as they get the gifts and read the letter, so we can hear their deliberation and how trusting they might be towards my group. If they are very trusting, I might be able to meet them in person 2 days later. If they are really skeptical, it might take a few weeks of writing to each other before we can meet in person.

In time, these refugees can either remain as neighbor alliances or join my community in my camp. More saved lives. More protection. It's a win win, and it was done in a safe way.

January 3, 2015

Good question. From what I see of most people, their bug out location is not rural enough. Most people buy a property in the country and think they can use it as a bug out location. However, there is still a paved road leading up to that location. If there is a paved road or a even a dirt road leading up to your bug out location, it is probably not rural enough for a scenario where society completely collapses. Having a road leading up to your location just makes it easier for gangs and refugees to find your house. What will you need a road for once society collapses? You won't. So make the choice to go even more rural.

In order to decide how rural you should be, you need to first figure out your goal. Is your goal to survive or is your goal to help rebuild society? The two are not mutually exclusive, but the more aggressive you become in attempting to rebuild society, the riskier it will be to survive. The one who is more interested in rebuilding society, can live closer to populations and be more visible, while the one whose utmost concern is surviving, should live with his group in as remote a place as possible that still allows for comfortable provisions by way of crops and what can be harvested from the wilderness nearby. The main reason for this is that humans are going to be the number 1 threat post-collapse, so the best way to ensure survival is to get very rural.

I have a window of acceptability when it comes to deciding how rural to be.

If your goal is to survive, you should bug out to a location that is:

at least 2 mi from any paved road
at least 1 mi from any dirt road
at least 200 mi from any large city
at least 5 mi from any small town
not directly upriver from a population center
has a water source year round
has arable land
has wood available

If your goal is to rebuild society, you should bug out to a location that is:

at least .5 mi from any road
at least 60 mi from outskirts of any large city
at least 3 mi from any small town
not directly upriver from a population center
has a water source year round
has arable land
has wood available

The main difference here is that with the goal of rebuilding society, you will live closer to populations and will be able to reach out and adopt refugees, settlers, and natives of the area. You can gather numbers together more quickly (as long as enough food is available) to join your group, become your neighbors, or join your trade/defense network. If you are in a location that is extremely rural, you may never come across refugees and gangs, which makes it safer.